A Moment's Peace
by Song Of A Free Heart
Summary: Pure Jackunzel fluff oneshot... with a little bit of angst.


**I drew a picture of Rapunzel and Jack sleeping… and somehow this came out as well. I'm not sure what the background is. But have fun, I guess?**

_A Moment's Peace_

Jack was extremely private. That was something Rapunzel learned quickly. She knew he trusted her the day he let her into his room. It was a place she knew neither Hiccup or Merida had ever been allowed. It was his sanctuary – the one place he wasn't accosted on all sides by that thing called life.

For a moment, he could let his guards down when the door was closed, and no one was watching.

That he let her in meant more than anything he could say. When he wordlessly handed her a key, she knew he had just handed her his heart. His blue, blue eyes had earnestly begged that she not hurt him, as so many had before.

When no one else could find him, they all knew where he was. But she was the only one who go to him. She would find him amidst the sea of his blue blankets, the shade so close to his hoodie and jeans that he almost seemed to vanish into them. Maybe that was what he wanted.

Merida would be downstairs muttering about how unreliable and anti-social he was, and Rapunzel would join him among the comforting sea. Sometimes they would talk, or lay there in silence, occasionally falling asleep, usually with hands clasped.

That was where they had their first kiss.

Rapunzel had fallen asleep, warmed by the rays of the sun that came through the skylight in the vaulted ceiling above the bed.

She was woken by his calloused fingertips tracing the contours of her face so, so gently. She had opened her eyes slowly, blinking to bring her vision back into focus as her mind shrugged off the vestiges of sleep.

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and the intensity in his gaze made her cheeks color.

"Hey," she whispered.

"Hey," he returned.

"What are you thinking?" she asked, after a few moments of warm silence, wondering what it was she could see playing behind his eyes – eyes so blue it was almost painful sometimes. She had tried to make that blue with her paints, but could never capture it exactly.

Jack ducked his head, hiding his expression from her. She watched his shoulders rise as he inhaled deeply, then fall as he expelled the air from his lungs. Then he lifted his head and met her gaze.

"I love you," he said, his voice strangely rough.

She had heard those words before, from others. Too often from people who didn't know what they meant, and flailed them around like a child with a rag doll, never knowing how much pain those words could inflict when used to lightly. Eugene had said them a hundred times, but she been forced to accept that those words had been hollow.

They weren't light. They were heavier than any other words that could be spoken, because what they represented was a heavy emotion. She understood that weight now, because loving Jack could be so close to painful. It weighed on her heart, though she was growing accustomed to the weight, and it grew a little easier each day. It now floored her only when she saw he was in pain, and didn't know how to help.

Jack spoke them with all the weight that came from all the weight of truly understanding them. It resonated with something inside her – as though he'd plucked the string of a harp inside her heart. If he was saying those words, there was no doubt in his mind.

There was none in hers, either.

"I love you, too," she whispered.

"Thank you." To some it might seem like a strange response. But it was sincere, and she understood.

He pressed his forehead against hers. They both inhaled at the same moment. Her lungs filled with his minty, evergreen scent, and she wondered what she smelled like to him.

She wished she could crawl into his head and see what the world looked like through his eyes. For a moment, she imagined being able to shrink down, to crawl through his pupil, which looked like a dark tunnel to her artist's mind. When she reached the end of that tunnel she would turn around, and maybe be able to see the way he saw.

But she wouldn't be able to see the one thing she most wanted to. She wanted to know what he saw when he looked at her. To know what it was about her that made him open his door for her alone. She wanted to know why he loved her.

The imagination faded, and she inhaled him again.

"Rapunzel. Can I kiss you?"

The questioned pulled the air from her lungs, and it was a miracle that she could manage even the breathy "yes" that left her lips.

It was something she had wanted for so, so long… and she was completely terrified.

His lips touched hers, chapped but gentle, cool and bittersweet like dark chocolate. The kiss was brief and chaste. But still everything she wanted.

When he pulled back, she couldn't bring herself to open her eyes, and she curled up against his chest, forehead resting against his heart, which she could just hear as she drifted back to sleep.


End file.
